The Ickabog by J.K Rowling: A Political Satire under the Guise of a Fairy Tale.

 The Ickabog by J.K Rowling:

After a long long interval since the publication of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows in 2007, J.K Rowling enchanted the universe of the book-loving children once again with her superb word-craftsmanship and magical story-telling expertise in the fairy tale entitling “The Ickabog”. Though the tale was meant for the children aged about 9 to 12, unlike the Harry Potter series it can amaze a large number of reader groups ranging from teenagers to adults.

Apparently the plot of ‘The Ickabog’ has got everything any fairy tale would ever ask for:

1. A Loving Kingdom called Cornucopia, full with the aura of happiness and prosperity.
2. A King called King Fred the Fearless, though the adjective stands as an irony in its purest form.
3. A cunning, greedy and shrewd villain called Lord Spittleworth, the actual ruler behind the king.
4.   A beautiful capital representing the shines and glory of the Kingdom with the bunch of apparently happy citizens so proud of their status of living in the capital.
5. A ghostly Monster called Ickabog who seemed to be an imaginary threat until the culmination of the story. 

Synopsis of the Ickabog:

The plot sets on the Kingdom called Cornucopia with five cities including the capital, Chouxville. The four among them are prosperous and specialized in particular kind of foods: Chouxville for its heavenly pastries; Kurdsburg for its sumptuous cheeses; Baronstown for its exquisite sausages and beefsteaks; and Jereboam for its extraordinary wines. And then there is the Marshlands in the north end of the Kingdom, a less prosperous and neglected city, apparently implying the irony that the farther to the capital, the lesser in the status and prosperity with the graver cause of humiliation by others.

While every single person seems to play the role of the happiest person on earth with the Kindness and Magnanimity of the King Fred, the Dovetail family, particularly Daisy Dovetail was rather disillusioned with him. She rightfully held the King responsible for the death of her mother due to the overwork in stitching a coat for the king.  

Apparently apathetic to the mourning Dovetail family, the king, with a view to prove his Kindness and valor, agrees to a Marshlander’s appeal to lead a war party and save them from the mythical Ickabog. But the overhyped march of the royal guard ended in the tragic death of Major Beamish, the head of the royal guard. Lord Flapoon accidentally shot him to death and then the lies began.

Lord Spittleworth attributed the death to the mythical Ickabog and to establish the lie he keeps fabricating a series of lies on a killing spree. With the panic-struck king cocooned in his chamber, he begins his tyrannical era over the entire kingdom, establishes Ickabog Defense Brigade, imposes heavy burden of taxes over the citizens, and introduces tax collectors and censorship on free speech. The prosperous and happy citizens gradually find themselves poor and starving with severe more impacts to the people living farther to the capital.           

Eventually after years in the doomed and devastated kingdom, Daisy Dovetail, who was thrown in an orphanage following the kidnapping and imprisonment of her father, regrouped with her friend Bert, Roderich, and Martha at the orphanage, fled to the Marshland, and came close to their death in the killing cold. However, they were saved by the Ickabog, the last surviving one in the species presumed to be mythical monsters. The Ickabog took them to her cave, and nourished them with the plan to eat before her bronding (the process of giving birth to baby ickabogs) time.

Daisy manages to change the mind of the kind-hearted Ickabog and took her to the capital while supplanting the fear for the Ickabog with love in the mind of the citizens marching along them. Meanwhile Daisy’s father with the help of Bert’s mother and other prisoners of Spittleworth escapes the dungeon, leaving Fred to face the angry mob.

And finally, Lord Flapoon gets killed by a new-born ickaboogle, King Fred and Lord Spittlworth are arrested, the kingship is abolished, a new governing system by the elected people is established, the existence of the Ickabogs is ensured and the country lives happily ever after.     

The Ickabog, a Political Satire under the Guise of a Fairy Tale:

The Ickabog is obviously a well-written fairy tale woven in a magnificent plot, but under the guise of her engaging story-telling, J.K. Rowling unravels the satire targeting the entire political system in the following ways:

1. The common people are merely puppet to play the role to please the king, no matter however stupid, and cowardice or apathetic he is.
2.  Devising out imaginary threats or other things completely irreverent to the public interest, the governing system keep imposing the burden of extra taxes just to siphon out hard-earned money from the common people. For instance, the Ickabog Defense Brigade.
3. The burden of the taxes gets double to manage the tax system. For instance, the tax collectors introduced by Lord Spittleworth.  
4. The political system with a body of lies, keep making the rich richer and the poor poorer. As things turns out in the cases of the prosperous and happy citizens of Cornucupia. 
5.  Another example is the distancing of the common people along with their interests and complaints with the sugar-coated happiness of the people around the government. And if necessary political dungeons, executions and censorship over free speeches are implemented. The people of Couxville were remained unaware of the devastating picture of the other cities and even the complete communication system among people from different cities had been hijacked by the bloody hands of Spittleworth, the epitome of a corrupt political system. 

So, the plot, the setting, the king, the name of the Kingdom, and the mythical yet real monster, play their perfect individual role as a fairy tale. But as the story spans out, the series of lies establishing another lie, the changing fate of the happy and solvent citizens, the autocratic ruling of an apathetic system, the swindling of public interest, the censorship of free speeches and the application of monstrous power to force people into obeying the government—all indicates a satire targeting a corrupt and a very common political system.